Justice: Good times never seemed so far away

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The Astros have made far worse mistakes during Drayton McLane’s 18 years than playing Sweet Caroline at Minute Maid Park this past weekend. It probably doesn’t rank in his top 20.

Actually, his biggest mistake was such a franchise-changing one that all the others seem insignificant. We’ll get to Gerry Hunsicker in a moment.

Yes, we’ve reached that portion of our program where it’s OK to consider legacies. Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox might have been McLane’s last home game as owner of our baseball team, and if it was, it would be another in a series of low points in this final season.

What’s so fascinating is that he’ll leave as one of baseball’s 10 winningest owners during his 18 years, so it’s not like he never had a clue about running a franchise.

The Astros went to the playoffs six times in a nine-year stretch at one point, and McLane provided the leadership and resources to build those teams. He made sure Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell never played anywhere else. He led the campaign to get a great ballpark built.

All that success makes these last few seasons more striking, and McLane seems removed from it all. It’s like he can’t figure out how to fix everything that’s broken and will leave the tough decisions to the next guy.
Anyway, he’ll soon be taking his $680 million — and a $95 million Comcast signing bonus — and getting on with the rest of his life. Here’s hoping that 20 years from now he’s remembered more for the good times than the bad.

During McLane’s first 12 years, the Astros were about as smart and efficient a franchise as there was in Major League Baseball. In his last six years, they’ve been dumber than a can of rocks.

So why did things change so dramatically? How did a really good, really successful owner lose his way?

We might never know why McLane ran off one of baseball’s best general managers after the 2004 season, but if you’re looking for a turning point, that’s it.

My guess is that it was for the simplest of reasons, and isn’t jealousy a terrible thing? McLane got tired of Hunsicker. He got tired of the way Hunsicker was portrayed so glowingly around town while McLane was seen as a disingenuous goober. He got tired of arguing with him, too.

McLane especially got tired of getting the blame when things went badly while Hunsicker got the credit when things went well.

Hunsicker debacle

The Astros were so successful for so long that McLane probably thought anyone could do Hunsicker’s job.

He never understood what those baseball guys did anyway, so he figured he’d roll another guy in there and not miss a beat.

(Speaking of Hunsicker, when Jim Crane takes over as owner in the next few weeks, one of his first interesting calls will be whether to bring him back as general manager.)

After Hunsicker left, the Astros began doing dumb stuff. They mishandled negotiations with Jeff Kent. They let themselves be held hostage by Carlos Beltran.

A lot of us figured Hunsicker wasn’t going to be missed when the Astros went to the World Series in Tim Purpura’s first year as GM. But as players got old, as the farm system fell apart, the Astros followed one dumb decision with another and another.

It’s ridiculous to blame McLane for everything. He didn’t make all those lousy draft picks. He didn’t order Purpura to trade for Jason Jennings. Nor did he tell Ed Wade to get Kaz Matsui.

And the most serious problem — the decline of the farm system — began while Hunsicker was in charge.

It got worse after he left, and that’s not even the issue.

Hunsicker almost certainly would have gotten it fixed if he had stayed. Wade might have things headed back in the right direction, but it’ll be a year or two before we know for sure. (It’s not comforting that the top three farm teams are in last place and a combined 57 games under .500.)

Had Hunsicker stayed, he would at least have made smarter decisions than the general managers who followed him.

So here we are. The Astros are on a pace to lose a franchise-record 107 games, which would be the most in baseball since the 2004 Diamondbacks lost 111.

And Sunday afternoon in front of what likely will be one of the last large crowds of the season, the Astros played the other team’s anthem. Sweet Caroline has been played nightly at Fenway Park for the past nine seasons and has become one of the highlights of a visit to Red Sox Nation.

Fenway south

Why the Astros decided to play the other team’s fight song speaks volumes about the people in charge. I began getting emails almost immediately. Why would they play their song in our ballpark?

They also served lobster rolls in the stadium club, and I wonder why they didn’t honor Tip O’Neill and John Havlicek.

It’s not the most important thing on earth. Maybe the Astros were just thankful to have more than a few thousand people in the stadium regardless of whom they were cheering.

But it’s one of those little things that serve as a reminder of how out of touch these people have become. They are out of ideas. They are out of imagination. They just need to go, and the sooner the better.